I was scrolling through my news feed today and came across a post from a Facebook acquaintance. Her powerful words stopped me in my tracks. The sweeping anti-LGBT laws that have been enacted in North Carolina and Mississippi have sparked outrage across the country, but to transgender people living in these states, it is just more than a just theoretical debate about the equal rights that every human being deserves.

Alice, the woman who wrote this post, is transgendered and transitioned later in life. Watching her come into her own, becoming the person she had always wanted to be, has been truly amazing to see, or read about as the case may be. But hearing her describe her feelings as a transgendered woman living under the law of the so-called “bathroom bill” provided a whole new perspective on these draconian anti-gay laws.

For those who do not know I live in North Carolina,” Alice began. “Currently we are having a battle for freedom against a corrupt governor and legislature, which is currently Republican run.

The next part of her post took me by surprise, just a little, I have to admit. “This brings me to an odd place,” she wrote.

I have alway been a Republican. In general I support the things the party stands for. The problem is, the party no longer stands for what it once did. Once it stood for limited government, but now, when seeing an opportunity, they will seize power and grow the government every chance they get.

This is no longer the party I once supported,” she continued. “I no longer do, and in fact am currently fighting against them as much as possible. They have betrayed me and every citizen of this country.

Republicans are so intent on their bigotry and hatred, that they have never even stopped to consider that they are driving members of their own party away with their transphobic rhetoric and laws that do nothing more than legalize discrimination. Then again, maybe they simply don’t want these people in their political party, the same way they don’t want them in their public restroom.

Alice then slammed North Carolina’s “bathroom bill,” explaining what everyone who isn’t a transphobic bigot already knows for a fact: Trans people aren’t coming into the bathroom to molest your children or gawk at your wife, they just want to pee.

All across the country the party is introducing the so called bathroom bills. This is being backed by the RNC. The supposed reason is that transgenders pose a threat if we use the bathrooms that conform with out gender identity and that it will encourage child molesters to dress like women to gain access to the women’s bathrooms.

The fact that there have been laws in 17 states and over 200 cities going back as far as 1993, specifically allowing us to use the correct bathrooms, and no problem has ever arisen is of no concern to them, facts are not important.

There has not been one single case of a transgendered person committing any perverted acts in the restroom. Not one. (The same can’t be said for Republican lawmakers, but conservatives don’t like to talk about that.)

Alice then got to the real issue at hand. Since safety obviously isn’t the motive for these bullshit laws, what the heck is?

So then what is the reason? Partially it is an attempt to rally the base by creating a problem, that they want you to think is real. But even deeper than that it is an attempt at revenge. Last year the supreme court declared same sex marriage legal. When that happened we prepared for the inevitable backlash. Like dealing with a petulant child we knew a tantrum was coming.

Since they could not effectively attack the LGB part of LGBT, they went for the weakest and most vulnerable of us. The T. They see us, and in many ways rightly so, as being an easy target. Our numbers are small, and very few people understand the daily struggle we go through just to survive, dealing with our very existence can be difficult, even without having to endure the hate and ignorance constantly thrown at us. This makes us an easy target. So what this boils down to is pure hate filled revenge.

We couldn’t keep the faggots from getting married so we will stop the trannys from pissing.

Boom. That is the crux of the issue isn’t it.

These laws have nothing to do with what the GOP is proclaiming. No one is worried about the safety of children in the restroom. (News flash, they have never been safe there.) Even if you completely ignore the fact that the fictitious scenarios conservatives are using to justify their state sanctioned bigotry have neveronce actually occurred; the very fact that they say these laws are to keep little girls safe, but in the same breath they are sending these oh so scary trans people into the restroom with their little boys, proves that “the children” don’t have anything at all to do with it at all.

The only reasons for these laws are bigotry, hatred, and as Alice made very clear, revenge.

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April has studied political science, psychology, and philosophy. Back in the good old days she was a reporter for “old fashioned” print newspapers. In addition to news and politics, she also blogs about service dogs and disability advocacy. As a black woman with a disability, she is fed up with the right-wingers who would prefer that she and others like her didn’t exist.